Last week, Fantasy Flight Games announced Star Wars: Unlimited, a new TCG that would use the Star Wars IP's "iconic heroes, villains, ships, and settings." The game is expected to launch sometime in 2024 with its debut set, Spark of Rebellion.
We didn't know much about how the game would actually work, but today we've got our first look at some of the cards coming in Star Wars: Unlimited. Those cards include units, tactics, gambits, and leaders, some of which include Litleo Organa, Grand Moff Tarkin, Luke Skywalker, and the dreaded Darth Vader.
As with most TCG's, Star Wars: Unlimited is a turn-based game with each player performing a single action per turn. "Almost everything you do in the game is an action, such as playing a card, attacking with a unit, [or] activating an ability," writes Fantasy Flight Games. "Figuring out which action to use at a given time is a huge part of the game’s strategy, and since your opponent can potentially respond to anything you do with their action, each round is dynamic and impossible to predict!"
To use Magic: The Gathering as an analog, units seem to be Star Wars Unlimited's creatures. There's a resource cost in the upper left-hand corner, attack and defense values on either side of the type text, and a rules box with the card's important abilities. Games take place both in space and on the ground, with units being deployed to either arena depending on their typing.
Leaders are something that one chooses before the start of the game. Each leader has an undeployed form that has no attack or defense values and just offers a handy ability that can be used whenever you like. Once a player has the required resources, they can then deploy their leader using an Epic Action, which turns them into an actual unit capable of attacking and defending.
The goal of Star Wars: Unlimited is to destroy your opponent's base without losing yours in the process. We're still not too clear on what a "base" is, but we'll get more details on gameplay and deckbuilding in future press releases.
Another aspect of Star Wars: Unlimited previewed today is its organized play. Fantasy Flight Games plans to different ways to take part in Unlimited's organized play: Casual Play and Competitive Play. Casual Play involves low-stakes or no-stakes competitions such as prerelease events, weekly play, and Store Showdowns. Competitive Play will keep track of player performance and award tournament points based on how well you place. Get enough points at regional, sector, or planetary qualifiers, and you'll be invited to the Galactic Championship.
Stay tuned for more details. Star Wars: Unlimited is expected sometime next year.